Meet a Tester: Sergey

, Managing Editor, Testlio

In Meet a Tester, we feature QA experts from our community who share their love for quality and Testlio. Meet Sergey, a smart and passionate tester from Ukraine.


Sergey

Where are you from?

I was born and have lived all my 33 years in Mariupol, an industrial city in southeastern Ukraine. My hometown is located on the north coast of the Azov Sea, which is the shallowest sea in the world.
My native tongue is Russian, but of course, I also speak Ukrainian, which is the state language in my country. I also know English, German and Polish with varying degrees of proficiency.
My hope is that when I visit these countries, my vocabulary will be enough to get by and I’ll be at least able to order my favorite fruit tea 🙂

What are your specialties?

Due to the specifics of my work (and for my personal use), I constantly test or use different types of apps (Web, Desktop, Mobile, or Cross-Platform). Currently, I do a lot of black-box testing, which works with manual, functional, localization, usability, and sometimes security testing. I also have to interact with various software platforms, including very specific ones, such as ReactOS.

What is your educational background?

My higher education was obtained at a local University in the ‘Lifting and Transport Machines’ specialty, not related to IT at all. But at the end of my second year, I discovered Linux (Hello my first Mandriva distribution. Many years have passed, and I still have only pleasant memories about you).

Studying my main specialty became almost uninteresting for me at that point 🙁
I was only fascinated by the world of software. I installed/uninstalled/studied dozens of applications per day.

Two more years of study went unnoticed by me. 
I am ashamed to admit it, but I learned only the necessary minimum in my main specialty, but my knowledge in my ‘hobby’ was much more extensive. Eventually, in my 5th study year, that gave me the opportunity to get a job in a major telecommunications company. But that’s another story …

How did you end up testing for Testlio?

About four years ago, an unstable situation arose at my main job and there was no confidence in the future. And I had to look for a job that did not depend on my current location. So I discovered Crowdsourced testing.

For me it was awesome, getting tasks and performing software testing from the comfort of my home.
I registered, studied and analyzed all the various crowdsourced testing platforms that I was able to find. One day, I found a mention of a promising platform called Testlio.

I immediately started the registration process but could not complete it on the same day. As it turned out later, there was a slight trick in the registration process which could be successfully completed only after analyzing console logs. In my opinion, it was very creative and informative. Next came the test task, then the first invitation to a real project.
So began my interaction with a new amazing platform, with which I work to this day!

How does Testlio’s pay compare to your market rate?

Rather than compare the pay (which is attractive for my region), I’ll explain why in the end my choice was in favor of working with Testlio.
Testlio allows the tester to fully focus on the task and purpose of testing as payment is guaranteed. That is, the time spent will be rewarded with the qualitative performance of the task, and the tester can do his job and have fun, and not worry about how much he will earn. For me, this is a very important part of the workflow.

How do you manage the balance between testing and personal life?

Unfortunately, it is not always possible to keep a perfect balance between testing and personal life, since I have two small children that need care all the time.
But thanks to Testlio’s flexible work schedule, I can almost always find time to help or play with my babies.
In any case, working from home provides an excellent opportunity to always be near my family. And that is priceless!


Sergey with his two bundles of joy

What motivates you professionally?

To some extent, I am a workaholic and I like testing, so I always have intrinsic motivation.
The main thing is not to forget to have a good rest, then high motivation and excellent productivity are guaranteed.

What’s an interesting fact about yourself?

Probably hard to imagine for such a big man like me, but I really enjoy dancing and I’m even good at it a bit. For this, I can thank my parents, who gave me the opportunity to dance since childhood. Although I did not become a professional dancer and found myself in a completely different exciting area of work, I have a great pastime that gives me psychological relief and a sense of rest.

What are some personal apps you can recommend?

Let me tell you about the excellent app for control and screen mirroring of Android devices – scrcpy by Genymobile.
Behind the inconspicuous name hides a high-quality multi-platform tool to interact with your Android device. In addition, it is an Open Source Project.

I love listening to music. Not only does it increase my productivity, but it also soothes my mind when I need to relax. So I would like to mention another great app – YouTube Music.

How would you convince a friend to join Testlio?

I constantly encourage my friends to join this great platform and Testlio’s friendly community. Not everyone finds the vetting process easy though… so maybe they need to be slightly more test-geek at heart.
But I am very glad that we have a community of like-minded people.
Thank you Testlions!